Trump’s pose can be read as a subversive play on a traditional power-portrait pose (look to Delaroche’s portrait of a defeated Napoleon for another wonderfully subversive take on the pose, though the tone there is elegiac as opposed to scheming).

Paintings of
seated monarchs
can be seen to hold two aesthetic functions —to ground the association between the sitter and the throne, thus solidifying the metonymy, and to heighten the sense of servitude in the viewer. The viewer must approach the monarch, the monarch does not rise for the viewer.

In our post-monarchic time, the power of the throne is largely gone, but the power of a seated figure remains. The chair itself is unimportant, it is the act of sitting that matters. By placing a portrait in this tradition, the chair assumes the role of the throne, and the sitter the role of king (or queen) —the visual effect is the same.

The image of the Lincoln Memorial (and the other two images) is an exaggerated version of the traditional pose. We see our subject head on, but, most importantly, we see the subject from below. The angle forces us to look up at the subject, which in turn creates the impression that the subject is looking down at us. This pose and angle, with the viewer seemingly (and literally in the case of the Lincoln Memorial), at the subject’s feet, makes the subject appear dominant, powerful, judging.

But, flip the image around, and suddenly we have a whole new set of connotations. On the Time cover, instead of seeing Trump head on and from below, we see him seated from behind and roughly at eye level. The power relation has shifted entirely.

Trump’s turn towards the camera renders the tone conspiratorial rather than judgmental. There are two images at play here — the imagined power-image taken from the front, and the actual image, in which Trump seems to offer the viewer a conniving wink, as if to say, look at how we hoodwinked those suckers in the front (both Trump and the viewer are looking down on those in front). By subverting the typical power dynamic, Time, in a sense, implicates the viewer in Trump’s election, in his being on the cover in the first place.

Coming together to design the next Moodle.

The Moodle Users Association provides a way for users to contribute to Moodle development. A
committee
is voted in annually and
registration
is always open.

The
Moodle learning platform
is an open-source software project that has grown since 2002 under the direction of Moodle Pty Ltd and is used in hundreds of thousands of institutions and workplaces world-wide.

The Moodle Users Association is an official non-profit organisation dedicated to contributing towards the core development of Moodle.

The mission of the Moodle Users Association is to support the growth of Moodle by providing a strong and united voice to users, giving direction and resources for new developments.

By joining the Association you will have a real say in deciding which Moodle features will get implemented next, even if you or your organisation are not developers or don't have enough funds to hire developers.

In this way you help ensure Association-selected projects are adequately funded for development, while also enhancing your professional network through collaboration with other Association members.

The process involves:

A Committee elected by the membership manages the functions of the Association. Any Association member (an individual or an organisation) is eligible to be elected to take part on the Committee. Further details are in the
Governance
and
Rules
pages.

Every month, we host two town hall meetings that are now open to anyone that would like to connect. They are held over Zoom Video Conferencing on the first Tuesday of every month at 8:00 AM UTC and the second Tuesday of every month at 6:00 PM UTC. Click on the link below to join.